Middle Schooled
Middle Schooled is a web series created by Nicholas Merchant that is distributed by Comedy Cubed and Drakoloid. It is a companion series to High Schooled and primarily focuses on Amanda and Nikki, characters that first appeared on High Schooled. Many other characters from High Schooled have also appeared. The episodes are typically shorter than High Schooled episodes, and often expand on a plotline or topic from a specific High Schooled episodes, though some are standalone. Summary Middle Schooled revolves around middle schooler Amanda Lipton (Ariadne Merchant) and her best friend, Nikki Tyler (Charlotte Henderson). Cast Starring Ariadne Merchant as Amanda Lipton Charlotte Henderson as Nikki Tyler Recurring Nicholas Merchant as Ryan Derek de Jong as Derek Nikhil Patel as Kenny Development During development of episode 3 of season 1 of High Schooled, which puts a greater focus on Amanda and her friend Nikki, discussions of a spin-off, focusing on them, began. To test audience reaction, a series of 10 minisodes (1-2 minute videos) focusing on Amanda and Nikki were ordered. Production started on the minisodes in December 2016. They were written and directed by Nicholas Merchant and Ariadne Merchant, who plays Amanda. The character of Ryan also was to appear heavily in the minisodes, to help bridge the gap between High Schooled ''and the potential spin-off. Four minisodes were written and one was completed before it was decided to shut down production. The main issue of these minisodes was the characterization of Amanda and Nikki, who were given the exact same personalities and Derek and Ryan, respectively, instead of the personalities they had on ''High Schooled. ''The filmed minisodes, as well as the unfilmed scripts for additional minisodes, were scrapped and have never been released, as Amanda and Nikki's personality were noticeably off, so the minisodes no longer match their canonical personalities. The main purpose of this potential series was to tell smaller stories in the High Schooled universe without having to use the stars of the main series, which would delay production of both series. With the cancelation of the minisodes, talks about a full length spinoff series also ceased. The potential full length series would have focused on Amanda and Nikki's efforts to launch their band, with episode outlines already having been written for the five episode first season. With neither a series of minisodes or a full length series moving forward, Amanda was promoted to a starring role in High Schooled season 2 in April 2017, and it was decided that Nicholas and Ariadne Merchant would focus on the main show. However, since season two episodes of High Schooled were to take longer to produce and would only be released every few months, in the summer of 2017, discussions began on how to create additional content in the High Schooled universe in order to fill in these gaps. Without wanting to cut into the production schedule of the full length episodes, it was decided that new minisodes, this time around 5 minutes long, focused on Amanda and Nikki were to be developed. This series was announced as ''Middle Schooled in August 2017, with production beginning in November 2017.